Hey guys after numerous rue extractions over couple of years I thought I mastered the process but it seems like something unexpected always comes up.

Anyway... decided to finish whatever I had left (over half a kilo). Started brewing without grinding by preference for ease of filtration. First boil was without vinegar(but low water volume, 1L) and came out really strong by taste. I filtered it twice with a cloth and put in the fridge. Next morning almost half a jar precipitated looks almost identical if I'd done manske on it.

Any speculations of what it could be ? Perhaps the liquid is too saturated and harmala salts crash out on their own(although I was under the impression its the freebase thats not very soluble).

By the way, boiling whole rue always produces these distinct floating flakes for me, even in low concentrations(when doing single dose of 5g per). This doesnt occur if rue is boiled ground.

After boiling and reducing, I let it settle for a couple of days. Depending on how concentrated it is, it can get fairly clear by just letting the particles settle out. The sediment is usually very dark brown, almost black, and settles to a fairly thin layer so it doesn't look like harmalas, if the solution is acidic it should all be dissolved. I decant and throw the sediment away, it is very fine and will pass through many filters.

Also, 1L is not very much for over half a kilo, especially if it hasn't been reduced yet. You would need to do at least 5 boils, I would think. For that many seeds I would personally use around 2-3 L for each boil, with three boils, to get most of the harmalas. There's no strict guideline for this, you just keep doing boils until it doesn't look like it is getting anything, which is easy to tell by color. Harmalas have a distinct yellow glow when in solution that is obvious in the sun or with UV light. Save yourself some work and combine all your boils and reduce before you worry about the filtering and sediments. With that many seeds you'll need to work with 2L or so for basing or manske. It can be hard to decant from fluffy crystals that won't settle down below half the water volume, you do much less washing when you use larger volumes of water.